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Rohas Nagpal: From Cybercrime Investigation to Blockchain Education
Written by
Tatum team
November 25, 2021
3
min. read
Table of Contents
He’s run nodes, built blockchains, investigated the drug mafia in India and successfully taught his mother about blockchain — meet Rohas Nagpal.
Tatum is a knowledge partner of the Blockchain ADDS course, a masterclass led by Rohas Nagpal, where 50 applicants are taught how to design blockchain solutions.
Last month, we had a chat with Rohas, talking about his journey and all the experiences that led him into blockchain education.
How did Rohas get into blockchain?
Rohas recalls that his first encounter with Bitcoin was back in 2010, when he was helping one of the law-enforcement agencies in India investigate the mafia’s usage of the cryptocurrency as a payment method.
He immediately realised that the technology is interesting and something he would be hearing of more often in the years to come. From then on, he kept reading and educating himself about it up until 2015 when he started installing and running Bitcoin nodes. Rohas wanted to understand how the technology works in practice so he started setting up blockchains.
In 2017, he founded Bankchain which is a community of 37 banks backed by names such as IBM, Microsoft, and Intel. Bankchain members received benefits such as access to training material, invitations to exclusive blockathons, technical training sessions as well as enterprise solutions.
With Bankchain put on hold due to regulatory challenges in India, Rohas moved on to the Wrapped Asset Project (WRAP) whose aim is to bring assets and commodities like gold and silver to the public blockchain.
From blockchain developer to blockchain educator
What got Rohas interested in creating blockchain courses and share his knowledge about the technology were the high number of failed projects and misconceptions surrounding it. In his eyes, every time a blockchain project fails, it hampers the reputation and reliability of the entire industry.
His goal is to educate people on what blockchain can and cannot do. For example, employing blockchain technology for projects that include large amounts of data, it’s bound to fail.
Why is the Indian blockchain development talent pool booming?
Engineering is one of the most popular career paths for people in India and because of that, India has a high number of developers. The country is a hotbed for fintech startups and solutions which already prepares developers for blockchain development.
What’s the Blockchain ADDS course about?
Whoever completes this course should be able to understand administration, security, design and all those essential elements that help you build a blockchain solution from the ground up.
Many people are not even aware that there are different blockchain frameworks to choose from. The course offers a practical approach to learning, with students choosing a case study to build a blockchain around.
Funnily enough, Rohas’ first and one of his best blockchain student was his own mother. Rohas mentions she was able to pick it up very quickly and to this day, she reads every piece of content he puts out and asks insightful questions. Oh and by the way, she also a crypto investor!
What’s Rohas’ vision for blockchain technology?
Rohas mentions that we are currently at stage 2 of blockchain. Stage 1 was the use of individual cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Stage 2 was the different series of decentralized finance blockchains. Stage 3, according to Rohas is hybrid finance — the idea of traditional banks and fiat currency, working with blockchain.
Rohas wants to banish the idea that blockchain is here to replace banks. He wants to educate developers, governments and the industry on the many ways blockchain can improve what we already have.
That’s all for now
If you liked the Rohas interview there’s more blockchain content for you to consume by simply checking out our:
As far as Tatum and what we’re working on, we’re always adding new features and blockchains, so keep up to date by following us on our Linkedin and Twitter, and if you need any help with anything, please drop us a line on the Tatum Discord or subreddit.
